Congress To Grill Shultz On Role In Iran-contra Affair

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State George Shultz will face congressional investigators`

questions Tuesday about his involvement--and deliberate shunning of involvement--in the covert sale of arms to Iran and use of those proceeds by the Nicaraguan contras.

Shultz has said he told President Reagan of his opposition to the sale of anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles to Iran in 1985-86 and then steered clear of the operation, which was directed at the White House by the National Security Council staff.

Along with the president, Vice President George Bush and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, Shultz is a statutory member of the council.

Members of the House-Senate Iran-contra committees will press Shultz on why, as the President`s top foreign-policy adviser, strategist and action officer, he turned the administration`s Iran and contra portfolios over to National Security Advisers Robert McFarlane and Rear Adm. John Poindexter and to council aide Lt. Col. Oliver North.

The disclosure last November that the United States sold weapons covertly to Iran blew out of the water two declared Reagan administration policies that Shultz authored and promoted vigorously: refusal to make deals with terrorists and neutrality in the Iran-Iraq war.

Since 1984 the State Department has listed Iran as a terrorist state because of its sponsorship of the Shiite organizations in Lebanon that have taken credit for kidnapping--and in some cases torturing and killing--American citizens.

The State Department also was the U.S. agency responsible for promulgating and policing ``Operation Staunch,`` an effort to persuade foreign governments from selling arms to either Iran and Iraq and thus encourage them to negotiate an end to their war.

The revelations of the U.S. arms sales to Iran sharply undercut the administration`s credibility abroad and embarrassed Shultz.

Shultz is bound to be asked about the impact of the Iran-contra affair on U.S. interests.

Shultz also will be asked why the State Department`s experts on Iran, the Middle East and terrorism were totally excluded from deliberations on Reagan`s Iranian initiative.

It`s also likely that Shultz will asked about the contradiction between McFarlane`s testimony that Shultz was ``repeatedly and often`` informed of the Iranian connecton and Shultz`s statements that he was given only fragmentary information.

Shultz`s successful solicitation of a $10 million donation for the contras from the Sultan of Brunei is also expected to be probed.